ts if he had remained _unmarried_. Indeed, his
creditors were patiently awaiting the sale of some property. Besides, he
was rich enough while unmarried; he could exercise hospitality, travel
in good style, not even keep for himself the produce of his works, and,
above all, never refuse to perform works of charity and benevolence. He
wrote to one of his friends before marriage that his affairs were about
to be settled, that he could live comfortably in England, and buy a
principality, if he wished, in Turkey.

Thus, then, marriage alone drew upon him this new disaster, which he
must have felt severely, and which, doubtless, led him to make
reflections little favorable to the tie so fatally contracted. Then it
was that he would have required to meet with kindness, indulgence, and
peace at home; thus supported, his heart would have endured every thing.

Instead of that, what did he find? A woman whose jealousy was extreme,
and who had her own settled way of living, and was unflinching in her
ideas; who united a conviction of her own wisdom to perfect ignorance of
the human heart,[140] all the while fancying that she knew it so well;
who, far from consenting to modify her habits, would fain have imposed
them on others. In short, a woman who had nothing in common with him,
who was unable to understand him, or to find the road to his heart or
mind; finally, one to whom forgiveness seemed a weakness, instead of a
virtue. Is it, then, astonishing that he should have suffered in such a
depressing atmosphere; that he should sometimes have been irritable, and
have even allowed to escape him a few words likely to wound the
susceptible self-love of his wife?

Lady Byron possessed one of those minds clever at reasoning, but weak in
judgment; that can _reason_ much without being _reasonable_, to use the
words of a great philosophical moralist of our day; one of those minds
that act as if life were a problem in jurisprudence or geometry; who
argue, distinguish, and, by dint of syllogisms, _deceive themselves
learnedly_. She always deceived herself in this way about Lord Byron.

When she was in the family way, and her confinement drawing near, the
storm continued to gather above her husband's head. He was in
correspondence with Moore, then absent from London. Moore's
apprehensions with regard to the happiness likely to result from a union
that had never appeared suitable in his eyes, had, nevertheless, calmed
down on receiving letter